The local food system in Wichita is becoming more vibrant and is a community treasure. But why does local food matter? Wendell Berry says, “Eaters must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.”

Astronomy is cool because at night we see a vast dark sky with pinpricks of light. Those pinpricks represent many different objects surrounding us—other planets, galaxies, nebulas and stars, and some of those stars even have other planets orbiting them.

In 2007, America’s electricity sources were much more diverse than those in Kansas. Less than half of nationwide electricity was generated from coal, with almost equal amounts of natural gas and nuclear power. Kansas, meanwhile, relied on a less diverse mix, with nearly 80 percent of the state’s power coming from imported coal.

KMUW will be hosting Science Friday in September, and to get ready we'll be hearing a series of science-related essays over the next 12 weeks, exploring many of the different aspects of science that Science Friday covers.

In this SciFile, we hear from ceramic artist Jessica Balu about the intersection between art and science.